Comments on: Translate Your Entire Site? Or Not.

By: Laurel Delaney

Laurel Delaney — Thu, 25 May 2006 23:38:57 +0000

Okay … I just finished an article on this very same issue. Here’s what I wrote and when the article is officially published, I’ll be sure to share it with everyone:
“Begin with the end in mind: Know your audience. And then design your site for overseas markets with multiple languages but start slowly with one market and one language. Be consistent and offer MORE than just a few pages of translated content. After all, your customer needs to understand your message and without that happening, there is no basis for business.”
Hope that helps.

By: B.L. Ochman

B.L. Ochman — Thu, 25 May 2006 03:54:36 +0000

Anne: Thanks for pointing out my misunderstanding of the case study. That makes more sense.

By: B.L. Ochman

B.L. Ochman — Thu, 25 May 2006 03:52:44 +0000

Peter: I can’t see how one page in another language will index or SEO an entire site. I think that the important parts of the site should be translated.

By: anne holland

anne holland — Wed, 24 May 2006 22:32:03 +0000

BL — Thanks for the hotlink and mention. However I must point out that our case study specifically said you should NOT translate your entire site. Instead you should provide foreign language content that’s highly relevant and updated to those readers. For example, VBFun.com includes offers and factoids that only French Canadians care about in their French Canadian section – but no where else.

By: Peter Kim

Peter Kim — Wed, 24 May 2006 16:23:56 +0000

Since your post sits on the fence, I’ll take a stand – websites should be translated into any language that’s important for their global business. The quote you reference about “serious customers” points out the extent that this company sees multilingual SEO as a traffic-inducing tactic (bad) rather than part of a customer relationship strategy (good).